Were Al Kazeem human, the humiliation of having to step through the gates of this racecourse on Saturday would surely be too much to bear. We all know exactly what he has been getting up to since we last saw him in October and we also know that he has been rather a flop at it.

Fortunately, horses are more robust creatures and cruel words such as “subfertile” perturb them not at all. No longer a glamorous stallion prospect of untold value, Al Kazeem will return to the day job, his connections hoping that the old magic still lingers.

The first question in these rare cases is always about attitude. Anthropomorphising once more, we imagine that the life of a professional thoroughbred, pounding up the gallops twice a day, must pall after one has been cosseted at stud, asked to engage in nothing more strenuous than the occasional copulation.

On this subject, Roger Charlton, who once more finds himself training Al Kazeem, is reassuring. “Unless there’s something that I haven’t seen, I would say that box is ticked,” Charlton says.

“His attitude is good, he never looks at a filly, he’s completely concentrated on what he’s doing. He’s always been a noble and good-tempered horse. So I don’t think he’ll come in here, standing on his hind legs, shouting and sweating and screaming, you know, looking an arse. I expect him to behave like he’s always behaved and I think people will say he looks very well.”

On that basis, Al Kazeem, a 9-4 shot, should be long odds-on for Saturday’s race, which represents a major step down in class. It is three years since he last ran at such a low level.

“If he was at his best, he should be winning by four or five lengths,” Charlton concedes, but in fact he does not expect easy success. “The bottom line is that he’s a good 20kg heavier than he would have been when he won the Eclipse and the Prince of Wales. I guess that translates into: the horse will benefit from the race. How much is guesswork.

“From a training point of view, he’s done everything right. His attitude is particularly good. His movement is particularly good, he’s not stiff, shuffly or anything. He’s been a very willing partner, he does everything we’ve asked him to do.”

Another imponderable at the time Charlton spoke was the exact state of the going. It was fast, summer ground here on Friday but rain was confidently predicted by all forecasters last night, in quantities ranging from 5mm to five times as much.

Al Kazeem came to be thought of as a fast-ground horse last year, since he repeatedly ran well on good to firm, but Charlton feels he coped rather than thrived on it, that his natural preference is somewhere between good and good to soft. A bit of rain would therefore be welcome, though the trainer would rather not see the mud flying.

If all goes well, we can hope to see more of one of last year’s most exciting Flat racers. No plans have been laid beyond Saturday but possible targets include the Champion Stakes at Ascot in October, a race Al Kazeem’s owner would particularly like to win, it is believed.

Charlton points out that the horse’s only defeat in six races at right-handed tracks was in the Arc, when he faced an impossible task from the widest stall. That would be a point favouring Ascot, though not this track, which bends the other way; Al Kazeem has been beaten four times from six races here.

But this is just the start, or the restart. “The horse is clearly enjoying his work and his life,” Charlton says. “It’s not like you’re taking him out and thinking he doesn’t want to go out, he doesn’t want to gallop, he’s stopping at the bottom of the canter, he’s not happy.

“He’s doing everything in a very willing fashion and he was always like that. So we have the right person to play with. It’s exciting.”